The irony of "Common Sense" - Why don't people think any more?!

Hello, and welcome, to the brand-new Dharma-Farmer page! I am delighted that you have decided to join us. We appear to be a growing crowd, which gives me some small measure of hope. I trust you are well, but if not, then I am sorry to hear that. Fear not, you are in safe hands and good company. We look after each other here. Firstly, I must start by confessing that this is not the article I was originally planning to write. Not at all. Whilst meditating on meditation (as it were) and common misconceptions, so rich a vein did I strike that I thought it prudent to allocate an entire article to it. I'm glad I did. It matters. A Lot!

I was reflecting on thinking itself, the investigation of mental events (Dhamma-Vicaya, pronounced Da-Ma-Vi-Chi-Ya) and I noticed that asking Google the question "Why don't people think any more?" yielded pretty much ZERO results. Clearly the situation is much worse than I'd feared: Not only are most people leading increasingly reactive lives and not used to pausing to apply reason and logic to a given situation, but generally speaking, people in the world today aren't even questioning why this may be so, which I find terrifying, and unsurprisingly this got me thinking some more. I've always been told by friends that I need to 'stop over-analysing everything', but I enjoy the incisive nature of mind, and relish any given opportunity to work on 'Vipassana', or 'Insight'. As the Buddha insisted, we have to learn to think for ourselves, and without learning to think more clearly, no Insight will arise. Without the penetrative quality of luminescent rationale, we shall lack the revolutionary flashes of Insight, the glimpses of Perfect Vision (the first 'step' on The Noble Eight-fold Path)  to which we later aspire to bring our lives into accordance with. In short, without the ability to clearly think things through for ourselves, we won't get very far at all, and one cannot muster the full weight of one's emotional convictions to effect lasting change. Something to reflect on, should you feel inclined...

Many people have a misconception that 'the Dharma Life' or 'a Buddhist life' is all about constantly exuding a kind of mindless, imperturbable equanimity, about spending your time in some fuzzy, warm, blissed-out utopian state, never experiencing anything other than radiant cosmic love and 'oneness' with all Life. Sorry to break it to you folks, but that is clearly nonsense. H.H. The Dalai Lama freely admits that sometimes, for no real reason, he wakes up in a bad mood, or he loses his temper and snaps at people. Why? Because he is a human being, albeit a highly evolved one. The capacity to be self-aware is that which makes us truly human in the first place, and with that comes the sense that we can become something more, something better. We can learn to use mindfulness and awareness to try and think clearly, allowing us to separate fact from value, truth from opinion (see video below). This will eradicate much suffering from our lives. Try it - it really works, and makes life so much easier. The fact is we don't have angry thoughts - we have thoughts which make us angry, or more correctly; thoughts arise upon conditions, and we make value judgements based on our emotional responses to them. WE make ourselves angry. WE do this to ourselves, and it's completely unnecessary! "I am tired and it feels unpleasant" is a fact. "It's a bad thing and not fair because it's Saturday night" is the value judgement. You see what I mean? A huge part of the Higher Evolution of Man involves bringing awareness to our emotional states. With radiant clarity we can perceive them for what they are, seeing through them and growing beyond them, beyond our habitual fixed views, beyond ourselves. 

As we all know, we can love someone very much, but that doesn't stop them doing things that cause feelings of irritation and anger to arise. I love all beings, and not in a idealistic cartoony kind of way, and sometimes we have to rely on those that love us to point out our faults in order for us to consciously evolve into better, more peaceful, more 'Enlightened' people. The Buddha describes a true friend as someone who isn't scared to point out one's shortcomings, and suggested these friends be seen as akin to "a treasure-map pointing us towards the real path of peace." It is with that in mind, it is with an attitude of loving-kindness that we proceed today, whereby I found myself reflecting on the simple fact that these days many people seem to lack initiative and have gradually lost the capacity to think, not just for themselves, but at all. This isn't necessarily their fault either. Our economy is founded on two greats 'pulls': greed for that which we want but don't have, and aversion to that which we have but don't want (as well as not having our every whim and desires instantly met). These two mental states are both expressions of a fundamental ignorance to the true nature of life, of reality. It's our job to see through our own delusions. No-one else can do it for us.

In reality there are NO safe refuges in the material world, no guarantees, nothing in which we can eternally rely on. If you can think of something as a support for your happiness, it isn't. Everything in the world is impermanent, and whilst some things last for a long time, they cannot provide states of eternal gratification and joy. Not cars, not jobs and certainly not houses. Not a partner, not a child, not even an economy can be relied on forever. Nothing can. It's just unrealistic, isn't it? We all know these things as rationally true, but how lamentably quickly we all forget this, and act as though life were somehow otherwise? 

We live in an age whereby we are so constantly distracted from out direct experience, what we are feeling, thinking etc, that not unlike a drug addict, we need increasingly greater stimulation to feel anything at all. Never before has a society had so much and yet been so comfortably numb, as the song goes. The machinations of our reductionist, materialist society constantly dangle the shiny baubles of bogus gratification just out of reach, and the marketing executives, bless 'em, understandably want to perpetuate this state ignorance and intellectual sedation. They themselves are only marginally less self aware, and hence we find ourselves in a time of spiritual impoverishment. It's important to recognise why. Tempting as it is, we must judge others not and working together, move forward with a sense of emotional positivity beyond a system which clearly doesn't have all the answers. One thing is for certain though - there is a crisis looming, and be it social, economic, environmental or spiritual, we need all the thinkers we can get. I'm not here to make value judgements, just point out the facts. Logic is no longer taught in schools, and nowadays, ironically, even common sense appears to be a tragic rarity. I should know; I work for the police.

It's hardly surprising, but most people don't actually know what irony is or how to use it in conversation. For those people, fear not, you are not alone, and I admit I had to double check, ironically. To be clear on the matter, it is a mode of speech in which the words are the opposite of what the author intends; the literal meaning being counter to the figurative. Alternatively, situational irony is where the outcome is the opposite of what we would normally assume to occur e.g. a man needing medical attention gets run over by the ambulance, the police station gets robbed etc. The fact that common sense is such an uncommon thing means that it is an example of both, and we can now use the phrase ironically. Irony is a form of sarcasm, if that helps. And we all know what sarcasm it, right?

Confucius (552-479 B.C.E):
"The superior person makes the difficulty to be overcome their first concern. Success only comes later."

A disinclination to clarify and rectify terms like 'irony' isn't just a recent problem, by the way. A Chinese contemporary of the Buddha, Confucius, knew this well, saying it was the first step on the path to social harmony. Unbeknownst to most, the 1995 hit by Alanis Morrisette of that title doesn't actually give any examples of irony, which IS ironic, and hence the title. She's a very smart woman, and of the few people who spotted that her examples were flawed, even fewer got the joke. "An old man turns 98, he won the lottery, and died the next day." That's not ironic, it's just unfortunate and really sad. A traffic jam when you are already late? It can be irritating as hell (or not), but it's NOT ironic.  A song entitled "Ironic' which doesn't give any examples of irony - now THAT's ironic. I was 12. I got it - why did no-one else? It seems to have gotten worse since then, too.

Is it any wonder that even today, nearly 20 years later, so few people get the joke when you consider how completely acclimatised we are to taking everything unquestioningly at face value? Add to this the advent of smart phones and widespread internet access in most of the developed world, knowledge become rather disposable. "Jus'googleit" is in danger of becoming a word (or technically speaking a contraction) in it's own right. Even my Mum uses "J.F.G.I" regularly. The 'F' stands for 'flipping', honest. Spellcheckers and autocorrect software mean that we never have to pay much attention to our spelling. Calculators in maths lessons/examinations have long be criticised and has arguably lead to reduced numeracy levels with each successive generation. I'm not going to criticise predictive text per se (although heaven knows I've sent some genuinely bizarre messages whilst inebriated in my time) but my point is simply that nowadays we live in an age where most of the time we no longer have to think much for ourselves and as a result initiative appears to be going out of fashion. In the UK, as in most places, we are told how to dress, which musical artists are 'hot', which celebrities are cool, and which TV shows to watch. The more insidious marketing geniuses can sometimes combine all of the above in one fell swoop. We are continuously bombarded by advertisers who couldn't care less if purchasing their designer sports watch, studded with diamonds and still water-resistant at the bottom of the Marina trench, renders you unable to afford to do any actual diving! There's not even any sunlight seven miles below the surface by which to see the damn thing, but no-one notices because it sounds good and most importantly, it sells. 

Gemma Worrall,  20, a beauty salon receptionist from Blackpool made the headlines recently with her incomprehensibly misinformed tweet. Apparently she has 17 GCSEs. It's good to know that the British education system is working, and that exams aren't just getting easier as many of us feared... Oh, and she is now being offered a TV career.

When did we switch off? When did we transition into a culture and society which at best celebrates mediocrity and at worst applauds stupidity? TV shows with no obviously redeemable features, such as "The Only Way Is Essex" (or "T.O.W.I.E" as infinitely cooler people than me call it) and "I'm (Barely) a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" seek out, encourage and and make superstars (for five minutes) out of people who 200 years ago would have been killed at birth or died in the streets, such is the severity of their mental and emotional deficiencies. I'm serious. Opinion, as always, is far from unanimous, but many people believe that the gene pool is getting both shallower and more overcrowded, and a scientific paper has been published by Stamford University confirming that as a species we are regressing genetically. I'm willing to believe this, provisionally. 

I am a commited Buddhist, and I have in my heart a sincere and profound wish for all beings to experience health, happiness and harmony, including you, dear reader. I mean that. There is not a living being that I would wish to suffer. However, Joey "Essex" is a man of such low intelligence that he once confessed "I don't know how to blow my nose." When I heard that, I nearly shat blood. "No-one ever showed me how" he lamented sadly, possibly imagining whole realms of cosmic nasal pleasure, forever closed to him. Who knows? I happen to think it is disgraceful the way these 'stars' are treated. I wan't Joey to be well, I want him to have a long and happy life, but I fear that the choices others have made for him will render him unable to experience either professional longevity or deep-seated contentment. Let's call a spade a spade folks: The producers of these 'reality' shows pay very clever scouts/agents lots of money to seek out people with crippling emotional problems, learning difficulties and exceptionally low intelligence in order to put them all in front of a few cameras. The producers simply sit back and watch the cash pour in. And pour in it does. These people don't need photo-shoots and 'vajazzles', they need professional help, and in some instances, plastic cutlery.

In the history of humanity, the last 20 years have been without precedent, as for the first time we see clever, self-aware people are being marginalised in popular culture. For several millennia, societies across the globe placed extraordinary stock in the capacity to think clearly, or at all. People lived and sacrificed their lives for ideas such as reason, and democracy. Now we live in the age of egalitarianism, the absurd idea that all people are completely equal, irrespective of pre-determined genetic factors such as age, race, gender, IQ etc and this in turn is destroying the respect we once had for teachers and leaders. Mind you, those same leaders are hardly helping the situation. On the morning prior to announcing the new budget, UK Chancellor and 'money-man' George Osbourne choses to promote the occasion by 'tweeting' and tagging popular boy-band "One-Direction" in order to...  To do what exactly, George?!. You see my point? This is hardly surprising though, coming from a man who, we aught to remind ourselves, has NO qualifications in international trade, commerce, mathematics or economics. Not even home economics! I wouldn't trust him with a toaster, much less the economy of a country on the verge of a double-dip recession and financial ruin. In fact, let us be absolutely clear, this is the first real job the man has had of this nature, unless you count his few years prior in the shadow cabinet, where the British taxpayer paid for him to pretend to be running the country's finances, and criticise genuine economists over their decisions. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't want the my surgeon's training to consist of a period whereby he pretended to be a surgeon, mocking the genuine article holding the scalpel. Why then do we tolerate it in our country's leaders? 

Chancellor of The Exchequer, holder of the purse strings, Ladies and Gentlemen... George Osbourne!
How does a man with no credentials or professional experience in the field of economics manage an economy?
History will judge the man, but here he resembles a strategically shaved ape holding a bomb... 

This shift from meritocracy to idocracy has been recent and dramatic, as I have said. At one end of the spectrum of human endeavours, my father can still recall with absolute clarity the miraculous 1953 conquering of Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay et al. This is unsurprising as the news broke the day before a 27 year old Queen Elisabeth was crowned Queen of England, but even so. A sprightly, skinny ten year old he may have been, but he still wells up with pride (we will overlook for now that Hilary was originally from New Zealand) when he recalls the sense of achievement which swept the world. It was a achievement for all to rejoice in: It had been done - Man had finally conquered the Roof of the World! Upon their return, they were both knighted immediately, and rightly so. Nowadays, people 'conquer' Everest with 'nothing more at their disposal' than several thousand pounds worth of equipment, ropes pre-cut into the slopes to "ease congestion",  and a vale of sherpas with GPS. After all, one shouldn't be expected to carry one's own tent and oxygen, heaven forbid! This season, around 800 teams (each team has between 15 and 40 support staff) will be attempting to 'go for it'. I'm surprised that people aren't made to queue patiently with a ticket like at their local deli, sampling free hummus at Base Camp. It might make them feel more at home. Wealthy students do it on their gap year, en route to boogie-bording down a Hawaiian mountain on a dolphin, naked. It makes me shudder, then weep, and then shudder again, and only the fact so many have lost their lives attempting it and that a few brave or attention-starved folk insist on doing it without oxygen masks stops me from mercilessly rubbishing the entire enterprise altogether.

Closer to home, the banality is more palpable. A good friend of mine was a be-mulleted teenager in 1980 when The Jam became the first band in history to top the UK charts and go straight to pole position in their first week of sales. The track, ironically (and yes, it is ironic), was "Going Underground", in case you were wondering, and in order to do this, the band managed to sell a jaw-dropping 3 MILLION-plus copies in a week. That's over 428,571 a DAY, or 53,571 an HOUR. My friend bought several of those. Everyone did. Music lovers clubbed together, radio DJs were talking about it as if it were the Second Coming, and that Sunday night, gathered around the radio, a nation waited with baited breath. When the news broke, house parties erupted spontaneously across the length and breadth of this fair isle. "The next morning, when we all got to school... well... You would have thought England had won the world cup! Mods and rockers were hugging and giving each other high fives, kids were dancing in the playground, even football rivalries were put aside... Well, until lunch time at least!" he japes as a misty-eyed fondness descends. Nowadays, dear old Justin Bieber need only shift a pathetic 20,000 copies/downloads to achieve the same feat, and in fact it's considered yet another nail in the coffin of his career if he fails to do so. As a musician, this makes me very sad indeed, for all of us, including young Justin, who as it happens is an absurdly talented guitarist and drummer, and will no doubt be carved up, chewed through and spat out once he has lost his flavour. I hear that Lady Gaga, again one of the greatest artists of her generation, has just been dropped by her record label. Her first album sold 15m records. Five years later, her latest offering sells less than 2m copies. That's still a LOT more than I've sold, mind you, but you see my point. Same artist, same person, but people are no longer being told to go and buy her records. She is a human being, and the indignation and suffering she is going through right now must be quite literally unimaginable. It breaks my heart, and I wish I could give her a hug. She deserves better than this. They all do.

Meet Stefani Germanotta, 28 years old today, by coincidence! Two years ago she was listed by 'Forbes' magazine in the Worlds Top 100 Most Powerful Women. Today her career is in free-fall. Happy Birthday hun, may you be well. 

Not only do we celebrate non-achievement, stupidity and botox'd superficiality, those who wish to be a lamp unto themselves are considered weird, erratic, and possibly a danger to others. I see no signs of this changing either, regrettably. Thank goodness for comedians and their inability to suffer fools gladly! For example, Bill Hicks detested people talking about the 'miracle' of childbirth, suggesting that whilst we can be happy for someone, it's rarely an achievement worthy of praise, as such: "It's no more a miracle than eating food and a turd coming out of your ass! It's a chemical reaction, that's all it is, and I have some good news for you, folks - the 'miracle' is spreading like WILDFIRE... Hallelujah! I tell you what would be a real miracle,what would be praiseworthy; raising a kid that doesn't talk in cinemas! There's your miracle, right there..." He is not wrong, on several points, 

Firstly, ALL of life is a miracle to be savoured and appreciated, not just one part of it. How people can claim to sanctify life and pontificate about the sacred duty of parenthood when there already too many humans on this planet is utterly beyond me. If you want to have a child simply to scratch the biological itch, or because you and your partner kinda want the attention then just SAY IT! It's ok to want to start  family, it's natural and normal, and were it not for conception, half the people alive wouldn't be here today.* It's healthy to be honest, so be honest with yourself. If you think it will bring you and your beloved closer together then just say it! Please though, don't speak of the sanctity of life when people are starving and dying in the streets less than 10 miles from most of our doors. Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Perhaps we should try ask ourselves every day, as often we you can remember to, no matter what we are doing - "Why am I doing this?"

Secondly, I think we do, as individuals and a collective, need to reassess our capacity to discern that which is genuinely praise-worthy from the mundane. The word 'celebrity' comes from the word 'celebrate'. For what are we celebrating most of these people on TV and in magazines? What have they actually done to deserve and earn our admiration? I have been writing this article, without pause, for 9 hours now (NOT an achievement - I love writing) and I've just ordered a take-away curry, deliverable to my door, at the click of a button - now THAT is a technological miracle, and one dear Bill sadly never got to experience. The gift of language, of communication and connection, that oft overlooked capacity to convey one's heartfelt desires, aspirations and thoughts, mediating between emotions and the rational mind, bridging our inner worlds and the outer - THAT is an evolutionary miracle. The central nervous system is a miracle. The fragility of life on this planet and the utter implausibility of our own existence - THAT is a miracle of improbability. 

Perception too is a miracle, but more miraculous than any of these is the simple fact that many years ago in India, someone had a realisation which still holds the key to setting Mankind free from the servitude of our own minds, forever ending all suffering. That people think I'm weird for wanting to help them sunder the bonds which bind shows the real state of affairs. In terms of human endeavours, within a social context of mediocrity, ignorance and greed, I write with a longing in my heart. I pray you may reflect on and find inspiration in these words of his:

"Better than a thousand meaningless words collected together 

is a single meaningful word on hearing which one becomes tranquil.

        

Though one should conquer in battle thousands upon thousands of men, 
yet he who conquers himself is truly the greatest in battle.

 

It is indeed far better to conquer oneself than to conquer other people..."

We must find our own path through life, and doing no harm, lead by example.
Pictured is one of the daily school visits to the Manchester Buddhist Centre, and a dear friend doing his bit.

If you conquer your own mind, you conquer the world. It just takes some clear and methodical thought, that's all. Some people may well have gotten out of the habit of thinking, period. Their aspirations may have been reduced to looking pretty and finding a wealthy sexual partner who can placate their neurotic need for affirmation, caused by their own ignorance and misguided beliefs. But hey, we all have to start somewhere, right? I personally think there is more to life than endless, thankless, ultimately futile reactive cycles, oscillating between insatiable cravings and painful aversion, but that's just me. I am not interested in judging those who thinks differently. By their own admission, and with pride I hear people freely admit to being fake and shallow, but our 'civilised' materialist and hedonistic societies collude and condone anything which serves their own endless self-substantiation. People are explicitly told that it's ok to live this way (fake is fab, innit?), because 'they have good heart'. They ain't doin' nobody no harm, are they? But what about the harm they are doing to themselves? That's what upsets me. Many millions of people, through the actions and conditioning dictated to them by others, have been reduced to little more than consumers, units, margin and profit, mannequins and wage-slaves. It takes on average nearly £250,000 to raise, clothe, feed and educate a child to post-graduate level in the West. The marketing people are fine with that. It keep the cogs in their system nicely oiled, and them in expensive timepieces. 

It's so predictable, isn't it? It's as if there is some kind of media recipe for this sad perpetual money-spinning cycle: Check bank balance. Create a magazine, then create celebrities, and put those celebrities in it.  Sell lots of magazines. Check bank balance. Build up those celebrities in a way which maximises their earning potential (for you) and then tear them down, exposing them as 'charlatans' all along. Check bank balance. Publish the photos of the Marbella-meltdown, get a few close ups of the cellulite and the streaky mascara (and that's just the guys), and hound into rehab, cameras flashing every tearful step of the way. Again, check the bank balance, and ensure that readers are introduced to the next big thing. Ensure next big thing is more overtly sexualised and attention grabbing than the last big thing. Repeat. WARNING!! Keep creative, intelligent, free-thinking individuals marginalised, uncool and and outnumbered for the sake of aforementioned bank balance - we can't allow these types to start spoiling the party now, can we?*  

 Yours, pissing in their punch, mindfully,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

May any merit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to the benefit of all beings in their quest for truth.

May all beings be happy, healthy and in harmony with what is alive in their hearts.

*May all beings be able to spot my repeated ironic tone in certain comments.

May none be offended by my empty words, born out of frustration at the society which normalised banality and make the development of the true individual so hard. For those individuals wishing to march the their own drum, 

I am with you every step of the way!

May we all find peace, may we never think it's too late to change!

Super-size Vs Super-skinny: A Buddhist perspective on eating disorders

Recently, whilst pondering what to watch on my laptop I happened across an advert for the TV show, "Supersize Vs. Super-skinny", which no doubt some of you in the UK will be aware of. For those of you less familiar with the format, it is essentially a very popular diet swap show in which renowned dietician Dr Christian Jessen attempts to highlight to people with eating disorders the effects of their actions on their bodies, as well as providing them with expert support in their efforts to cultivate better eating habits, live a little longer and hopefully look an awful lot more attractive in lycra. Interestingly, it got me thinking about eating disorders and their treatment in relation to the teachings of the historical Buddha.

This show in question does much good in the world, and although there will always be a small insensitive percentage of viewers who tune in to watch emotional unstable people reduced to blubbery or skeletal tears, mercifully the majority of viewers are far more compassionate. Certainly, the production team grant us a fascinating insight into both ends of the eating-dissorder spectrum, and no-one who appears on the show is stripped of either their dignity or their humanity, so I figured "hey, why not?". Besides which, no matter how much potential a show has for splendid facial hair, I found myself unable to face another hour of eccentric British archeologists shuffling through the dirt and drizzle in 'Time-Team', another guilty pleasure of mine. What follows is a series of reflections following a few (15-20) subsequent episodes. This show, much like Buddhism, is concerned with empowering people to affect lasting change and complete inner transformation, hence my interest. I urge you to watch it, as I find it inspiring and shocking in equal measure. If nothing else, it makes me want to be a better, healthier, happier person.

Very quickly I noticed that the show and the treatment of eating disorders employs Buddhist teachings (not explicity, of course), and that these teachings of Self-Metta, Karma-Vipaka and Mindfulness are used to try and inspire and prompt a sincere desire to change in the viewer too. Within each episode, a simple Buddhist principle runs throughout the show: 'Dependant Origination' or in Sanskritt, Pratitya Samutpada. Another popular translation renders it "Conditioned Co-Production", but either way 'C.C.P' can be said to be the lynchpin upon which the entire Buddhist doctrine pivots, and that which sets Buddhism apart from any theistic religions or other unsubstantiated beliefs such as fate or guardian angels etc. Dependant Origination, put simply, is the principle whereby everything that occurs, arises, exists or originates does so in dependance upon other factors and conditions. Naturally, those pre-existing factors are themselves dictated by another billion or so unique variables in the past. As the supporting factors change, so does the phenomena, and when they pass away, so does that which they support. A common succinct formulation of this from the Buddha's time and ever since is "this being, that becomes, and from the arising of this, that arises." In effect, everything is interlinked through a vast chain of cause and effect, of influence and habit, stretching back into immeasurable time. Thus what we are today is totally dependant on who we were yesterday. Moreover, today we plant the seeds of tomorrow, and the fruit it bears blossoms from our current state. This is what 'karma' really means: Our actions (Karma) in this very moment have consequences (Vipaka) which define all following moments thereafter. 

For example: When I give in to a craving for sugary tea, I build up plaque in my mouth, which rots my teeth, makes my breath smell, and lavishes my vital organs with a few more surplus fat cells. In addition to this, my blood sugar rises and falls meteorically during the day, leading to drowsiness, requiring further doses of caffeinated edification. Ever-onwards the cycle plays out. Eventually, an addiction to caffeine can lead to heart disease, and an unhealthy relationship with sugar, either as a substitute for a balanced diet or as an emotional crutch will eventually lead to mood swings, weight gain, osteoporosis and diabetes. Quite literally, trouble is brewing. Diabetes, unbeknownst to most, can often lead to the amputation of limbs. Even death, by chocolate, if you will. It's food for thought, but so it goes as our bodies pay testament to the simple fact of actions indeed having consequences, or 'Karma-Vipaka', in more traditional Buddhist terminology. You are what you eat, and if your diet is crap, you will look and smell like crap. Life will feel crap, and it will all just get worse over time. It really is that simple.

Think of anything, anything at all, and within a few seconds you can see that it is entirely dependant on other factors. When we consider, even briefly, the vastness of this net of influence, it's easy to see that we are actually all a lot more interconnected than first appearances suggest. At a second glance, considerably more so and after months or even years of reflection, the notion of people as separate, isolated and uninfluenced by external factors is utterly laughable. The more we think about life as a stunningly complex tapestry of richly interwoven and interconnecting factors and people, the more likely we are to feel a deep and meaningful connection with others, even if it only starts with the thought "Well, all life is dependant on the presence of solid earth beneath its feet." Seriously, without tera firma and gravity, without heat, air and sunlight, where would we be? Would we be? Clearly not.

Our minds themselves are generally quite lazy, and lead us into bad habits, of which most people have a few. We all then rationalise them (this is something I appear to be rather gifted at, I confess) and justify that which we know full well will lead to states of future suffering. We buy the new widescreen TV fully aware that we can't really afford it unless we cut back in other areas, but then are bitter and frustrated when we have to deal with the practicalities of the extra financial strain. Actions DO have both causes and consequences, which go on to set up further causes and effects in a 'knock-on' chain of dependance. The show embodies this truth through exploring diet. The human body is made up from and reliant on all the organs. Our diet is the single biggest factor in the state of our bodies that we have control over, and when our organs no longer function, our bodies start to shut down, eventually resulting in death. How we treat the body now affects the future of both the organs and the mind, creating habits and patterns of behaviour. Over time these calcify into our personality, our perspectives and subversively dictates our self esteem. This was a story I heard over and over again on the show, and explains why childhood trauma can later on send people into either anorexic/bulimic tails-spins or compulsively waddling over to the snacks cupboard (formerly known as 'the fruit bowl') for the umpteenth time that day. It's all interconnected. All phenomena have causes, as does their cessation, and we owe it to ourselves to just ponder this if we find ourselves unhappy with our weight, one way or another. Why do we struggle to follow our rational minds? How much of our decision making process is based upon how we feel about certain things, such as our bodies rather than rational assessment, the heart leading the mind astray? 

 I believe that in the context of trying to change habitual patterns of behaviours, the one of the main problems in Westernised culture is a sense of isolation and that lots of people don't feel empowered or in any way in control of their lives. It is far to easy to feel dissatisfied these days, which I find tragically ironic given that never before in Mankind's history have we had so much. The more we have, the more impoverished we feel. This dissatisfaction then leads quite readily to addictive and compulsive behaviours, especially within the realm of sensory gratification (taste, touch, sight etc). I believe that people's craving for control ultimately stemming from a fear of death, a certainty well beyond the influence of man, however much we might like to think otherwise. In times of the universal acceptance of Christianity in the West, people could reasonably justify or relinquish responsibility for, well, just about everything and anything they wanted. When you believe that you are the beneficiary of cosmologically preferential treatment, any favourable fortunes will be as the result of God's will and will affirm your faith and self-esteem. Any unfavourable conditions are Gods will too. The shape of your body? Same again. "It's the way God made me" is a common 'rationale' for habitual over or under-eating.

Another hedonistic exhortation (read: 'excuse') is "you only live once" or "life's too short to worry - eat, drink and be merry!" Surely though the purpose of our existence cannot merely be to cram as much pleasure as possible into our years, via our genitals and faces? The other end of the spectrum is the ascetic, typically-Catholic line of thinking, which runs thus; "We are not put us here for pleasure and enjoyment, I am a bad person and by controlling the flesh I control my life." Either way, a lot of people in this country were brought up with some kind of formal religious education or awareness, and perhaps the problem of a culture of absolving ourselves of responsibility stems from our post-Victorian heritage? With the social changes including the "Death of God" and the Existentialist movements in the mid-20th Century, coupled with the Americanisation and increased commercialisation of the world, it appears that we have gotten rid of God, but kept the denial, guilt and disempowered attitudes, and ordered extra cheese fries with it all, just to cheer us up. It seems counterintuitive to me that we appear to have thrown out the key ethical message of the Bible (that which would almost certainly lead to a happier existence for most people) but kept in our lives the same disempowering absolution of ultimate responsibility which any theism demands. It would have been far better had we done it the other way around; as children, brought up to take full responsibility for our actions but still seeing the needs of others to be as valid as our own. We are creating societies with unprecedented and terminal levels of self-obsession, and I for one was dumbfounded to read that a teenager in the UK hung himself recently after taking 200 "selfies"in one day, and not being happy with them. When we face outwards, our problems have greater context, but I get the feeling that the advertising industry may have other ideas, don't you?

An increasing percentage of society is finally now willing to accept responsibility or credit for some of their actions (usually related to materialism, a successful career etc) but what I perceive to be an unwillingness to assume FULL responsibility for our ethical and emotional agency I fear is just as prevalent now as ever it was, eve in the days of the Buddha. Blame immigrants, blame the government, blame society, blame your conditioning even, but heaven forbid we acknowledge ourselves as responsible for our poor decisions and current ill-fortune. If we do, it is often extreme, with self-flagelation and undue reproach, which gets us nowhere fast. Where's the measured, balanced, kindly self-compassion? Alternatively, we turn our problems into narratives of epic proportions, for which we are solely to blame, and place ourselves once more as the lead role in the centre of our own personal psycho-dramas. Sometimes I can catch myself over-identifying with my problems and tribulation to the point that I can't envisage the problem going away and myself remaining. We become the problem, we embody it, usually perpetuating it, and on a subconscious level define ourselves by it. This is as true for eating disorders as it is for financial or social problems we face. "Oh, I'm just crap with money, it's who I am" we shrug, and then order another takeaway chinese meal or buy another pair of shoes. Over the last few months, I've had to be very aware of this subversive trap, careful and mindful not to become "the guy with the bad back" or "the guy who's sister is dying/died recently." We can begrudgingly admit that things aren't ideal, but we are even better at rationalising our destructive behaviours, aren't we? Admitting that we need to change is the first step on any road to recovery or inner transformation. Whether it is compulsive overeating, alcohol addiction or persistently low self-esteem, having to admit that our habitual ways of being are detrimental to ourselves and others is the most painful part of it all. Only marginally less painful, but less thought-of is the notion that we in fact over-identify and define ourselves by our perceived failings - "If I feel like, I might as well look like it too..."

It's amazing the sense of perspective we gain from being taken out of our normal environment, which is why patients on the show spend the week away from loved ones in a 'feeding clinic'. In this section of the show, ostensibly happy people have a mirror held up to themselves, both psychologically and literally. Chronic over and under-indulgers are presented with a nightmarish vision of their respective futures. For the overtly rotund, often it is with the aid of a visit to a morbidly obese American counterpart - Maurice, a 26 year old haulage driver from Stoke-on-Trent is sent to Turkey-Balls Falls, Missouri to spend a week watching ex-cab driver Bubba struggle to get on and off sofas, being winched into his pickup truck and sleeping with a respirator supplying oxygen to his collapsing lungs. Meanwhile, a catheter drains excess fluid from his rapidly failing renal system. "The doctors say if I don't stop wrapping my sausage in bacon and frying it in chocolate I'll be dead in five years." mumbles Bubba through a burger the size of a child's skull. Gooey cheese, a shade of yellow unknown to nature dribbles onto his chin and oozes through his fingers. Maurice pauses between bites, a tendril of saliva suspended from his fork. Bubba's neck is essentially an internal organ by this late stage in his life. "How old are you?" the unfailingly polite British doctor enquires... The answer always makes both me and Maurice very, very sad.

Our self-esteem is directly dependant on our perception of ourselves. This in turn is based upon our actions of past, present and future, and they of coarse arise in dependance on our volitions, wills and choices. So what produces our perceptions, habitual drives or ways of being? Our conditioning! It is our conditioning that really is key to all of this, to personal growth and to living a live which is vibrant and emotionally positive. Our habits are rooted in our past experiences, and it is no surprise that most people on the show are able to eventually trace their dysfunctional relationship with food back to past trauma. Whether it is the breakup of a relationship, the death of a relative or some form of emotional abuse either at home or in school, what I found quite starling to reflect on is how tightly we hold onto the bad times, and how ready we are to identify with negative thoughts and low opinion of ourselves. It's not uncommon to meet people who over identify with the good times, with their relative successes and victories, although sometime it can feel like people (certainly in the UK) will go out of their way to avoid feeling self-concious or are scared of being labelled egotistical or vain should they do so. The middle way, advocated by the Buddha, is surely the best way to mediate between paralysing self-consciousness and mindless egotism. By dysfunctional behaviours, I mean anything which will ultimately lead to suffering for ourselves and others. In body, speech and mind, we emote and act out our warped, unrefined, distorted inner narratives. The way we see the world defines how we relate to it, and we all know a positive, robust can-do will take us further in life than victim-mentality passivity. We simply must get our heads around the idea of doing things in the present moment that our future selves will be thankful for. Positive reinforcement is key with major life changes. It will be worth it, it's just a little scary, that's all.

I believe the teachings of Buddhism to be the key to taking increased responsibility for my current conditioning, and for contextualising my habits and perceptions before moving past them into a brighter, liberated tomorrow. For many people on the show there is a 'road to Damascus'-style revelation whereby they finally realise and make to connection between being bullied at school, or a traumatic upbringing, and how this has influenced their development ever since. It's usually quite moving, and suggests to me that a big step, other than admitting the need for change, is making peace with your past in the sense of becoming more realistic and honest about our conditioning. Lots of the people on the show are young mothers bored at home during the day who turn to comfort eating, or alternatively people with such hectic lives that they simply "don't have time to eat properly". Whatever it is that has lead us to this point, be it with regards to changing anger issues, dysfunctional eating habits or smoking, if we can first admit to the need for change, take increased responsibility and are determined to better ourselves then we can ensure that the only growth from this point on is healthy and supportive of a calm, happy state of mind. Self-Metta, committing to acts of kindness towards our future-self, must by definition be the way forward. We need to engage both the heart and the mind if we are to harness the full restorative potential of self-love.

The global statistics and trends are terrifying. It is predicted that by 2050 over half the UK population will be obese. Currently, over 75% of American are chomping their way to an early grave. Something, other than belt-buckles, has to give. As a people, as a species, we are eating, binging, purging and starving ourselves to death. In the US, up to 14m people face a daily struggle with anorexia or bulimia as societal pressures to remain thin become more rampant and explicit. That's more people than the combined populations of Norway and Sweden. And that's just in the United States too. Globally, the World Health Organisation fears that up to 70m people are suffering from an eating disorder. If ever there was a time for us as individuals to lead by example, now would be it.

It stands to reason that if we want to change something about our minds or our bodies, we first need to employ our reason and intelligence to determine the factors which support our efforts and identify the factors which will create the conditions for happier future states to arise. When we make changes and stick to them, we engage our emotional core too, as well as the rational mind. For the chronically over-weight, something as simple as gradually getting used to eating smaller portions and taking the stairs whenever possible can result in marked improvements in health, and chances are that as a person sees through their own direct experience the benefits of those changes, they will accumulate into even bigger changes, such as swimming at the weekend or being more active with the children. Alternatively, someone chronically under-weight and used to skipping meals needs a week or so of disciplined, concerted effort to make time for a healthier, more varied diet, and both groups of people are invariably gobsmacked at how much more energy they have, how much better they feel about themselves and actually, how easy it was. On the show, at the final weigh-in the vast majority of participants are elated to find significant changes, and seem determined not to keep it up as their old selves, but to allow the new 'them' to emerge as a long term commitment to a healthier, happier life beckons.

Participants are shown how absurd and profoundly damaging their diets are, and then made to swap. Seeing is believing, as they say, and here these people are shown a weeks worth of food, according to their respective diets.

This TV show is really about inner transformation manifesting itself externally, not about merely superficially swapping diets. It cuts to the heart of the path of spiritual transformation. I urge you to watch it on 4OD. People have an assumption that those who struggle to change are weak-willed, and there is a further assumption that those unable to change even in the face of overwhelming medical reasoning to do so are not only weak, but stupid too. "Waste of space", "dumb-fuck" and "stupid fat losers" were all names my work colleagues fell back on with easy laughter when describing participants, although safeguarding your future health and wellbeing is by no means a competition. In an effort not to judge these less-than-sympathetic types, I have to remind myself that to point a finger always requires the other three fingers to be pointing back at you, and to project superiority over those living with eating disorders says more about the ignorance of such people. Such an attitude gets us no-where and just creates more stress in the world.

It's interesting that stress is defined as the perceived gap between what we think we are capable of and what we think is being asked of us. It's all a matter of perception. Someone asked me recently if anyone can meditate, as he felt he didn't have it in him, but was curious nonetheless. This man is a physical trainer part time, and a full time international jet-setting go-getting entrepreneur. He felt, genuinely, that he could spare the time to write a seminar program for a conference, but assumed that he lacked the innate capacity to set aside 10 minutes a day and still the mind or generate kindness in his heart. The point of a regular meditation practice is NOT the practice itself, but the latent knock-on effects of it. If we set aside a mere 10 minutes every morning to 'tune in' to ourselves, we can observe our various fears, compulsions and neurosis that sometimes lead to compulsive snacking, avoiding food and if unchecked, full blown eating disorders. We watch them coming and going, and realise that they are no more real than a McSalad is healthy! There's more sugar and fat in one of those bad boys than some of the burgers! Don't believe the hype people, especially not when society tells you what you should look like! If in doubt, or if you have concerns about your weight or diet, PLEASE consult a medical professional. I am not a medical professional. Unlike Gene Simmons, I'm not even a doctor of Love, although I'm up for the physical examination...

Just who do you think you are...?

We need to grow up, not outwards. We must purge ourselves of our corrosive compulsions and negativity, not our breakfast. A healthy body will allow a healthy mindset to emerge, and a healthy mindset will leave us feeling better about our bodies, enabling us to hopefully set up conditions and habit that will support us for the rest of our days. It's taken me over two years to go from smoking VERY heavily to being ably to go days without a cigarette. It's work in progress, but just as a painting is created by a million tiny brush strokes, so it goes with the masterpieces of our lives. Changing one's conditioning is all about little steps in the right direction. It's takes a week or two before we feel the benefit of abstaining from alcohol or a healthy diet, but when we see the results, we can't help but feel good about ourselves. There is no other time to change. If not now, when?

It breaks my heart to see people struggle so with eating disorders. Believe it or not, I have always struggled with body dysmorphia, feeling like I was too skinny and less of a 'real man' than other guys on the street (or worse still, on the telly). I spent my teenage years in the gym, and put on a lot of bulk, but in my heart I still wasn't happy. In my 20's I turned to sex, drugs and alcohol to cheer me up and give me something to be good at (which I was, exceptionally so, on all three counts), but that only created a strain on my body and my mind over 15 years. It's only now, in my 30's, that I can see the benefit of the Middle Way. For a start, I no longer live on instant noodles and cider. At the weekend I might have a glass of wine with a meal, but drinking during the week is poor form, and leaves me tired and less able to help others. More immediately and practically, it leaves me with less energy to deal with my ongoing back problems, which are then subsequently more likely to leave me feeling overwhelmed. That feeling of being unable to cope makes me want to run, and traditionally I've always run to the bottle or the King-sized Rizla... And the cycle starts again! Well, now is the time for all of us to take a long hard look in the mirror, and remind the person stood there that you do give a shit about them, and that you won't let them down. If you don't care about yourself, why should anyone else? We can develop better eating habits, we can say 'no' to those biscuits, the extra sugar in our tea or that pack of crisps. We can learn to make time for breakfast, shop better, and as a natural result become healthier, happier people with more energy and a smile in our hearts. I can and will give up smoking, mid-week alcohol and make time for both breakfast and meditation. So long as I don't get into the habit of 'rewarding' myself for my newly found determination, then I should be ok. Let us allow the results of our experiments and endeavours to speak for themselves. I have a penchant for cheese and carbs, but we all know where that path leads, and I'm not up for a flight to Missouri...

Yours, with a sincere desire to stick around a bit longer,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

May any merit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to alleviating the suffering of all beings.
May any beings affected by this article seek professional medical help if they so require, and have access to it.
May all beings follow the Middle Way with regards to diet, corporeal and mental health.

The Sabbatical: Social Media and Reducing input.

Hi there, thanks for stopping by. If you have been here before, then my word, it's so good to see you again! How have you been? If this is your first visit, then welcome to our bizarrley-compelling Dharmic forum. Either way, it almost goes without saying that I genuinely hope you are well. I've found myself becoming very sensitive to the wellbeing of others of late, and unsurprisingly. As you probably know, this year has already been a tough one, having to slowly regain the use of my legs (nerve damage in my spine and hips) and the passing of my big sister six weeks ago. Fortunes fluctuate, it's in their nature. That being said, it can sometimes feel like being an undersized ship in an oversized sea. On the deck of life, being tossed about by the Worldly Winds (Lokadhammas), no sooner do we manage to regain our footing, literal or otherwise, than we often glance up and see another tsunami-like disaster looming over us. Mercifully, existence is not always this tumultuous. We can have a good run for months or even years; occasionally the inverse is true, but it's always changing, subtly or noticeably less so, and no-one can control it all. 

The First Noble Truth is inescapable. From time to time we all suffer, and recently has just been my turn in the stocks. It's nothing personal, of course; the universe doesn't hate me! Although we should always strive for fairness whenever possible, I find the notion of life somehow being fair or otherwise a frankly ridiculous and damaging one. If you believe in a universe without a creator-God then towering waves should come as no surprise. After all, in this world view (to which I happen to subscribe), things simply happen and phenomena arise based on cause and effect, and it is up to us to discern fact from value judgement; seeing situations as 'bad' rather than simply challenging makes life immeasurably harder, but more on that another time. If, on the other hand, you do believe in a creator-God, then such 'dark days' can become a massive thorn in a perennially tangled mass of theological brambles. In essence, if all phenomena become "acts of God", so in theory both my triumphs and tribulations are micromanaged by a cosmic adjudicator, passing judgement on me. My fortune reflects who I am, or who God thinks I should be. Either that or I am being tested, according to Christian friends. This is a notion I would find terrifying, and would probably just spend most of my life feeling persecuted, confused and embittered. I am no Job and have enough sleepless nights these days as it is.

Either way, as a Buddhist, the last 18 months have been of great use, and I might even have learnt something through the ups and downs. Over the years and through both my practice and study of the Dharma, I can see little positive changes in myself accumulating here and there, and I have noticed recently that when life hands me a shit-sandwitch, I'm getting better at taking mindful, equanimous bites. I'm also getting better at not seeing things as arbitrarily 'good' or 'bad', and then telling myself stories based on emotional responses. Instead of my habitual self-absorbed pouting or over-excitement, I can dwell in possibility and apply myself mindfully to lessening my suffering. Put more simply, I'm better able to spot a dark temper or mood on the horizon, and respond accordingly to prevent it getting worse. A few deep breaths, a few gentle reminders that thoughts are only real to myself and I'm back on track, or at least limiting the damage. 

As I mentioned in the last post, the Buddha taught that 'suffering' is either primary or secondary. We experience the initial sting of loss, and almost immediately and subconsciously create a narrative in response to the pain ("I can't bear this... this always happens to me... I don't know how much more I can take... It is just like the time that person 'X' did such and such... etc). We all suffer unavoidable knocks and setbacks in life (after all, it is rather big and complex) but it's how we respond that should be of most interest to us. In this challenge, a spiritual gauntlet is thrown down through unimaginable time and space. It is the making of us, quite literally. We do have a choice about how we respond to the various vicissitudes of life. Again, that Christopher Reeves quote reverberates around my mind... "Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional..." It's a life-long commitment to take increased responsibility for one's habitual responses which is the hallmark of the spiritual life, a skill which we never stop improving in, hopefully. Taking full responsibility for one's ethical agency in the world, and your own responses to life cannot fail to move us closer to a lasting sense of contentment and robustness.

That being said, when both my phone and my laptop were recently broken in a 72-hour period of electronic genocide, I wasn't exactly overjoyed. The phone, an iPhone 5, still has a few more payments before it is even technically mine. £550 worth of payments to be exact. Literally only days prior to all this, I had decided in a fit of childish petulance to cancel all my insurance policies in order to save money. Hey, it's £12 a month I really need, right?

I've never claimed on an insurance policy anyway, so to hell with you, O2! Well, now O2 have my phone, and my testicles, firmly in their iron grip. I feel very, very stupid, and the replacement they gave me is so old I had to consult the Rosetta Stone to fire it up. Texting, WAP (do people even still call it that?), photos etc - all avenues of pleasure temporarily blockaded off through a mixture of incompetence and technological limitations. Oh, and I've lost ALL my phone contacts.

Just to add to my potential woes, in it's final throes of existence, and with the slightest movement, my laptop dies. The battery has stopped charging, and I'm running straight from the mains, baby! If not actually living on the edge, I'm most definitely typing on it. Joking aside, it's all very testing. My inability to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has felt really weird but after a few days I'm over the worst of the delirium tremors. Whilst it's easy to make light of it, a terrifying number of both adults and children are addicted to social networking, and often with very real and damaging consequences for them and their loved ones. Children fail tests and adults loose jobs through late nights trawling desperately for online stimulation and interaction. It's why forums can be so deadly for those in need of productivity as we get addicted not only to the responses of others, but also and less obviously, to the idealised version of ourselves which we present to those people. We can be wise, pithy, lol'd at or with, as well as inhumanly cruel to others from behind the reassuringly anonymous glow of our mobile devices and computers. People get addicted to 'trolling' too. Unable to assert themselves in the real world (i.e. offline), many take to throwing their digital weight around, belittling others and in some cases actually goading people into suicide. I'd like to feign surprise at this, but alas, you know me too well, and nothing surprises me less, given how suffering always stems from ignorance, hatred and greed. Why should the online world be any different?

I recently posted something on Facebook about my frustration at being on painkillers (Tramadol) for the last four months, as although it enables me to manage the pain, the side effects before they kick in are invariable nausea and confusion, detachment issues, drowsiness etc as well as facial numbness and slurring of words. I have to chose my moments to write very carefully indeed, and break every 30 min to stand up and walk about before the pain starts to accumulate uncontrollably. Although vastly improved, the use of my left leg is still no-where near 'normal', and some days my mobility is still pretty limited. Train journeys still suck and usually hurt like hell, but at least now I don't fight it. On the balance, and combined with some remnant grief-related insomnia I'm sure you can understand why I felt the need to reach out to others online to see if they might be able to offer any pointers, as well as to moan about my phone being waterlogged and smelling faintly of urine. What resulted was shocking, even to me, as my 'conspiracy-theory' friends quickly declared all-out war on my 'medical-professional' friends, several of them nurses. Debate raged furiously over the effectiveness of prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical industry in general and then finally professional and personal attacks, character assassinations and violent, hurtful language. Two nurses emailed me, upset at the 'psychos' I associate with, asking if they could 'un-friend me' for 24 hours in order to get away from the abuse. Shocking stuff, and several of the combatants failed to even acknowledge my upset and frustration, launching into 2000-character grindings of their various axes instead. I believe it's called a hijacking. There were no demands, just carnage. 

I'm not here to pass value judgements, but I can chose to be a part of this cavalcade of nonsense or not, and after a few days reflection, I'm going to take a long-overdue break from social networking for a while. I am constantly having to deal with a myriad of various 'push-notifications' from all of the above, and although I will check my emails when I can, until I can afford a new laptop and sort a phone out I am 'going dark' as Jack Bower would say. I am hoping that affording technology a simpler, less frenetic role in my life will lead to a lessening of my habitual and almost compulsive posting online. These means of connecting with others I have always found inspiring, and I adore sharing thoughts, reflections, uplifting quotes etc. I have my personal profile and of course, The Dharma-Farmer has a separate profile to deal with professional matters and work, publish articles/blogs/poems etc. As you know, I have profiles on Twitter and Instagram too, and I think the hardest thing will be having to go without taking photos, spending time lovingly editing them to try and convey the beauty I saw in that moment. I've found it really therapeutic these last few weeks, but it should inspire me to dig out my digital camera (when did I last use that?) and maybe even set aside time specifically for photography in my days. Writing will be 'the old fashioned way' i.e. quill and ink, so this is probably the last you will hear from me for a while as I don't earn much on my part time wage whilst I slowly progress through a phased return to work. Who knows how long it will be before I can afford new technology?

I don't know what will happen, but I know something will, it always does. It's how I respond to it that will define what emerges 'at the other end'. In reality, of coarse, life is really just a constant flow of experiences and reactions, internal and external, no more and no less, into which we are all mysteriously thrown, and within which we must find our own paths to contentment and happiness. Every day abounds with choices, even if we aren't aware of it most of the time, and if we have a choice to do something or not, then we feel less trapped by it. For example, I chose to work where I do because it helps others, taking time to listen to and console often distressed people, which really make a difference in their day. I earn a crust as a police consultant and public liaison for victims of fraud, which is a very intense, fast paced job, usually typified by lots of people shouting/screaming at me or floods of tears. I proudly perform this role because it genuinely helps others, and because I can. It also ensures every day is different, with an unending supply of challenges to help support and perpetuate my Buddhist practices of mindfulness and compassion, as well as engendering in me the gift of patience. It's not every day you see the direct link between the three poisons (anger, ignorance and greed) and suffering. If I approach my job in this way, feeling like what I do is worthwhile and out of choice, I can create an arena for personal growth which benefits all. If, in your world, you can choose to alleviate suffering for people and suffer not yourself, you aught to. It really is that simple. I've also been wondering if Life may not have an intrinsic, universal "meaning" after all; It is not a message to be decoded or translated, it simply is. However, it can always be lived with a sense of purpose and initiative, even if that purpose is to find our own meaning and methods of creating pockets of happiness within the madness.

There are a million little ways we can make this world a better place, day by day, through our own individual effort. I have spent two years deliberately engaging with social media and networking sites intent on sharing daily positivity, peace, love and understanding, and tried to be on call 24 hours a day for those who wanted to ask something or speak to someone. I'm not burnt out, far from it. I merely feel like taking some time out to get perspective on how my border-line addiction to Facebook etc affects my mind during the day, and what affect that has on my life as a whole over several weeks. Unsurprisingly, I can spot an addict a mile off. The devil knows his own. Without a 'smart' phone, I will also be unable to listen to music on my commute to work in Manchester city centre. Already am finding that the marked increase in my daily Dharma intake leaves me lighter in step, mentally refreshed and inspired for the day ahead. Certainly more so that the habit of checking my Facebook profile the moment I wake up!

I realise that I need both 'active time' and 'calm time' in my life, and I'm curious to see how I struggle with the changes, and how I might benefit from reducing input. Three years ago I stopped watching Sky News over breakfast because it was too much information too early in the day, and besides which, was depressing me and distracted me from my meal. I had noticed that I was getting anxious if I didn't know, blow by blow, what was going on in the world. I've recently noticed this same neuroticism amongst non-Buddhist friends with regards to the recent actions of Putin's sizeable armed forces in the Ukraine. It's going to be hard, but I've put away my digital soap box, for now. Needless to say, the situation in that part of the world is unlikely to end in cuddles and a mutual agreement to better love thy neighbours. It's very sad, but it's also being presented to most of us via news corporations who want to raise the story, charge advertisers more and sell more newspapers. Another sad truth, and another soapbox temporarily discarded. 

I really want to encourage people to experiment with reducing their daily distractions, in the sense of becoming more aware and selective over that to which we expose our minds. I wouldn't dream of advocating denial, ignorance or osterich-like avoidance of events of global significance (such as potential land wars in Eastern Europe), merely a gentle reassessment on how dominant a role modern platforms for communication (the News/Twitter/Facebook etc) plays in our lives. A recent study by Harvard University shows that when we share our subjective experiences or engage in self-disclosure online, the same part of the brain which makes sex pleasurable or crack so addictive is stimulated, as well as finding that on average up to 40% of an person's daily conversation is about their own subjective experiences! The question for me is really about whether I am willing to accept this as an excuse for my own online posturing and subtle self-absorbtion? Rather than simply being addicted to Facebook or Twitter, is the real problem my addiction to myself? To what extent am I an approval junkie? Could reducing my input help this trend? Do I ask too many questions?

Sangharakshita mentioned this reduction of input in a speech given in 1993, a time I recall well, way before even computers were commonplace, much lest PIntrest. The eight-minute video in the link below should hopefully give us much to consider, and I hope is of use to you, dear reader. If nothing else, it provides much to reflect upon with regards to our own lives in general. Click here for the video. It was given as the first point of 15 in a talk written for those interested in exploring and bettering themselves through the teachings of the Buddha. It makes for compelling viewing, and so, unable to resist the temptation, I will leave you with this final compelling thought from Bhante himself, from the same talk. Pulling no punches, point six is: "Don't accept yourself". Provocative, intense and to-the-point, this is life changing stuff when applied mindfully and compassionately to oneself and others...! Enjoy!

So, in danger of myself providing too much input, I bid you adieu... It is with a wrench, but you will be in my heart, my prayers, and my practice. May you too find time in your day for a few moments of peace and solitude; of deep, mindful breaths and a heart born anew, eager to talk. The question is, will you be paying attention? Will you be able to hear it's whisper?

Yours in Metta, after a quiet moment's pause,

The Dharma-Farmer xx

May the benefit gained in my acting thus be dedicated to the benefit of all beings.
May all beings enjoy and engender in themselves a longing for the bliss of equanimity, peace and tranquility.